


Of Laughter and Horse Heads

by DoomedTemperament



Series: EreJean Magic AU [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, But he'll fall for Eren, Gen, I Don't Even Know, If I continue the series that is, Jean has a crush on Mikasa, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-18
Updated: 2014-12-18
Packaged: 2018-03-02 00:10:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2792705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoomedTemperament/pseuds/DoomedTemperament
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jean stood frozen in his spot for minutes- maybe longer- after the three had left. There was something about the way the brunette with the sea-green eyes that made Jean want to punch something, and it wasn’t as though he could leave the biodome before the spell wore off; he was, in essence, stuck. As he waited to return to normal, he briefly reflected on what had just happened, and what it meant for his future interactions at the institution.</p><p>---</p><p>A magic-ish AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Laughter and Horse Heads

**Author's Note:**

> This is probably way overdone or whatever, but I tried brainstorming a magic au the other day and people seemed to like it so. I'm still worried that it's too typical or unoriginal or whatever, but eh.
> 
> SHITTY ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND INFO:
> 
> Basically, everyone lives in one half of a universe- there's the magical realm, and then there's the wastelands, both of which are separated by a "rift" (the equivalent of the three walls). The wastelands are always dark and lifeless, except for the "venoms", which are evil beings (in substitution for titans).
> 
> Each human in the magical realm has one of four gifts- Communing (being able to "talk to" animals and other mythical creatures), spellcasting (self-explanatory), brewing (essentially, potionmaking), and defending (making shields/forcefields/healing powers/stuff like that). If you're skilled enough, you can get accepted into "The Institute" (the equivalent of the military) and hone your skills. At that point, you can either go outside the institution and do whatever it is you want to do, or go to one of four factions, usually the one based on your skill (though "mixing" is occasionally possible- e.g. a spellcaster joining the communer faction, a brewer joining the defender faction, etc.)
> 
> The institution accepts everyone from ages 15-17, and everyone stays for up to four years, though sometimes less.
> 
> Jean, Mikasa, Armin, Marco, and Eren are around the 15-16 range.

Jean Kirschtein was truly, truly lucky.

Beside the fact that he was granted the fantastic gift of being able to commune with animals, honing his skills at the Training Institution for Thaumaturgy, Arcanity, and New-wave Shamanry (or TITANS, as everyone called it, though in his opinion is was a shitty acronym) pretty much guaranteed him a prime spot at the magical guard’s communer faction. After all, one was not so easily accepted into the institution, and his entry alone meant that he would be heavily considered. The communer faction was probably one of the easiest (and safest) places to work in the world, and if he played his cards right, he would be living the good life by age nineteen.

It also helped that the institution happened to be the current home to who may possibly be the world’s most beautiful woman, Mikasa Ackerman.

Not only was she gorgeous, with short, silky black hair, and curves in all the right places, she was one of the most skilled students at the institution- this was undeniable. Her skills as a spellcaster were practically unparalleled, making her almost instantly popular among the younger trainees (and possibly some of the older ones- the creeps.) Of course, not many were able to talk to her- she wasn’t necessarily reserved, but rather, a bit… standoffish.

It wasn’t like Jean minded, though.

And, as his luck would have it, they both happened to be doing their shifts at the biodome.

As he worked on brushing one of the pegasi, he couldn’t help but be distracted. Nobody could blame him, right? It wasn’t his fault that his eyes tended to… wander. Especially in the presence of someone in possession of such a fine ass-

“You’ve been brushing the same spot of hair for the past ten minutes.”

Immediately startled by the fact that shitshitshit she saw me staring, Jean turned his attention back to the winged horse. He didn’t have to be looking at Mikasa to know that she was probably fixing him with her typical intense gaze, and he could have squirmed uncomfortably under the weight of it.

 _“You had better be careful, Jean,”_ The pegasus said to him, in the tone that only communers could understand, _“They say hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”_

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” He practically hissed back.

After he finished brushing the pegasus (with no small amount of sassing exchanged between them), Jean finally moved onto the next animal- a griffin. Great. As he fed the animal several large dead rats (gross), he didn’t even hear the sounds of footsteps entering the dome. It was only when he heard Mikasa speak that he turned around, noting that two others, most likely the same age as him, had snuck in.

The first one was a blonde-haired boy with a bowl cut, and startlingly blue eyes- his name was Armin, if Jean remembered correctly, and he was most likely a brewer. Jean shared a strategic planning course with the boy, and he remembered asking him for a bit of help on an assignment or two, but other than that, he hadn’t really talked to him often. The other boy, a brunette with sea-green eyes and a wide, nearly glowing smile, accompanied Armin. Jean didn’t remember seeing the other boy around too often, so he assumed he was just another student.

Until Mikasa spoke his name.

“Eren, what are you doing here without permission? And bringing Armin with you, too- you’ll both get in trouble.”

_Ah, so that’s the infamous Eren._

Marco, his best friend, had told him a few stories about some kid named Eren in his defense studies class;

\---

**_“I’m telling you, he’s practically a legend among the defenders.” Marco had said during their lunch hour._ **

**_“It sounds like you have a crush on him.” Jean teased in return, enjoying the startled sputter that Marco let out._ **

**_“That’s not true!” Marco started, “But if you saw him, you’d know it- he gets really passionate about his role as a defender. Of course, that means he tends to get into arguments a lot, but he can rip you to shreds if he gets enough motivation.”_ **

**_“I don’t see why that makes him any different from anyone else.” Jean shrugged._ **

**_“Well… he wanted to join the academy so he could get into the magical guard’s defender faction.”_ **

**_Jean nearly choked on his drink._ **

**_“What? That’s complete suicide! Everyone knows that the people who join are guaranteed to die the minute they pass through the rift!”_ **

**_By that point, Marco looked like he was torn between disbelief and a grim sort of admiration. “I know. But he insists that keeping the venoms from breaching the rift is one of the most important duties of humanity.”_ **

**_“The kid’s going to get himself killed.”_ **

**_“Maybe. But he’s probably braver than all of us.”_ **

\---

“Jean, are you okay?”

Pulled out of his thoughts once again (this time by Armin), Jean shifted so that he was facing the trio, and folded his arms across his chest.

“It’s almost dinnertime, and the dining halls are getting full. You might want to go before you miss the food.”

Jean nodded and thanked Armin, saying “I’ll leave in a minute, I need to take care of the cockatrices.” As Armin stepped away, Eren and Mikasa followed shortly after.

Of course, Jean couldn’t skip the opportunity to get one more look at-

Before he could gauge what was happening, his mind was overtaken by a sort of dizziness that left a dull pain in his skull as his vision went blurry. He tried to scream, but all that came out was…

_“NEIGH.”_

Immediately he clasped his hands over his mouth- or what should have been a mouth. Instead, it felt suspiciously like a horse’s muzzle. Confused and a little bit panicked, he looked up, only to see Mikasa giving him a stern glare, accompanied by a loud laugh from Eren, and a pitying expression from Armin.

“Did you just give him a horse head?” Eren called out between hit fits of obnoxious guffawing. Mikasa nodded- _shit, she really was a good spellcaster_ \- and turned to Eren.

“It will wear off when he learns to stop looking at my ass.”

More laughter, and the trio continued their trip to leave the biodome. As they left, Jean saw Eren sling an arm over Mikasa’s shoulder, and felt a pang of envy.

“You know, his face kind of looks horse-y anyway.”

Jean stood frozen in his spot for minutes- maybe longer- after the three had left. There was something about the way the brunette with the sea-green eyes that made Jean want to punch something, and it wasn’t as though he could leave the biodome before the spell wore off; he was, in essence, stuck. As he waited to return to normal, he briefly reflected on what had just happened, and what it meant for his future interactions at the institution.

Jean Kirschtein was truly, truly unlucky.

**Author's Note:**

> So I hope this isn't too shitty or cliche or whatever.
> 
> As always, you can find me at doomedtemperament.tumblr.com
> 
> Special thanks to the anon who suggested the idea of Mikasa turning Jean's head into that of a horse after being caught hitting on/ogling Mikasa.


End file.
